It is hard to believe that it has been over 6 weeks since I began posting status messages from my site rather than through Twitter or Facebook. Here was my first status update. Here are some observations that I’ve made:
- I figured out my process of updating, and replying, within about 10 days and have only made subtle changes since.
- I’ve only had one or two people complain about the fact that every tweet or Facebook update contains a link even if there is no more content to find on the site. Even so, once Barley 2 is finished I’ll drop IFTTT for my own custom solution which will ditch that link unless it is needed.
- I do not check Twitter nearly as often. Usually twice per day or so. I catch-up on Twitter in bulk using Tweetbot on my iPad the most. I hope Tweetbot never goes algorithmic.
- My status updates are far more informal and personal. Sort of like Twitter in 2006-2008 before every tweet had to feel like a well-written press release. I’m now more apt to share the shirt I’m wearing or my opinion on hotel sheet tucking. Some may not like this, I love it.
- I’ve only shared a photo in a status update once or twice. Here is an example. I do not know if I’ll ever share photos in a status update again or not but I’d really like to. One thing that keeps me from doing it is that IFTTT doesn’t send that photo off to the networks. Perhaps my custom solution will.
- All of my status updates currently have a “title” that you can’t see. And I have to manually edit it on mobile. With Barley 2 I will be able to remove the need for a title since WordPress supports title-less posts. I think.
- I didn’t lose a single subscriber to my RSS feed as a result of including these status updates in it (that I know of).
- I sort of wish I had a private version of my site so that I could update my status 10-times as often without annoying anyone simply to have a searchable history of these types of thoughts and observations. In fact, I may do exactly that. Or, I could turn off Twitter/FB/RSS unless I tag a post with a specific keyword. Choices.
- Not being limited to 140-characters comes in handy once-and-a-while.
- I wish more people did this.
I’m definitely going to continue on. My only regret is that I didn’t do this sooner.
